The Other Woman
by rcaqua
Summary: Buffy got pregnant after 'Surprise'and didn't tell anyone. She gave the babies to Angel. Five years later, she's in L.A. and she's hearing her children call someone else Mommy. Response to Pyro Bear's challenge.
1. Prologue

The Other Woman Challenge by Pyro Bear

**Buffy, after her union with Angel, became pregnant. After hiding it from everyone, she gives the baby to Angel when he leaves Sunnydale. Years later, when she finally thinks it's time to go back for her child. Only, when she does go back to LA, she witnesses something, her child calling someone else "Mom". **

**Requirements:  
-Buffy's feelings about seeing this.**

**Options:  
-The other woman can be anyone: Faith, Cordy, Fred, Nina, other.  
-The child can be almost any age  
-The child can be male or female.**

Angel **does not **die because the portal hadn't opened yet when he got his soul back. So, Angel has more time to cope with the news that he and Buffy can never be together and realizes that Buffy brings up too many memories of what he did as Angelus. By the middle of Season Three, their love has faded, although Angel will always care about Buffy. Angel leaves at about that time, although he's not happy that Buffy abandoned their children to him when he has no clue how to raise them.

Prologue

Angel looked down at the babies in his arms, watching his ex-lover's back as she walked away. _He was a father._ _Him._ The _Scourge_ of Europe. A _vampire. _He was the father of two beautiful babies, and he was all alone with no idea how to raise them. But he'd promised to take them with him to Los Angeles. Silently, the tall figure faded into the night, cradling two babies beneath his duster.

"Now the Powers didn't tell me about this." An Irish voice whistled.

Angel spun around, a bottle in his hands. He'd arrived in L.A. twomonths ago, even found a vampire-friendly apartment, all to keep his children safe, the last thing he needed was some demon trying to hurt them.

"Who are you?" he growled, hovering over the crib protectively.

"Doyle." The Irishman said, playing with a pack of cards.

"You don't smell human." Angel told him, his eyes flashing gold.

Doyle took no notice.

"Now that's a bit rude, so happens that I am very much human." He sneezed and blue spikes popped out all over his face. "On my mother's side." He shook his head and the spikes disappeared.

"Well, I come in uninvited," Doyle continued, walking past Angel, "so you know I'm not a vampire like yourself."

"What do you want?" Angel asked warily.

"I've been sent by the Powers That Be." Doyle replied nonchalantly.

"The Powers That Be what?" Angel asked.

"Let me tell you a little bedtime story." Doyle answered.

"But I'm not sleepy." Angel replied sarcastically.

If this Doyle guy was going to attack, Angel hoped it would happen soon, before he really did get sleepy. The only reason he hadn't attacked the half-demon already was his children- no need for them to see excess violence. Which was why Angel was going to kick Doyle's ass outside if he tried to lay a finger on either one of the babies.

"Once upon a time there was a vampire. And he was the meanest vampire in all the land. All the other vampires were afraid of him, he was such a - bastard. Then one day he's cursed – by gypsies. They restore his human soul. And all of a sudden he is mad with guilt. You know: 'What have I done?' You know, he's freaked." Doyle continued as if he hadn't heard the vampire.

"Okay, now I'm sleepy." Angel remarked.

"Yeah, well, it's a fairly dull tale. It needs a little sex, is my feeling. So sure enough: enter the girl. Pretty little blonde thing, Vampire Slayer by trade. And our vampire falls madly in love with her. Eventually the two of them, - well, they get fleshy with one another. Well, I guess the technical term is perfect happiness. But when our boy gets there, he goes bad again. He kills again. It's ugly. So when he gets his soul back for the second time, he figures hey, he can't be any where near Miss young puppy eyes without endangering them both. So what does he do? He takes off. Goes to LA. To fight evil - and atone for his crimes. He's a shadow, - a faceless champion of the hapless human race. – Say you wouldn't have a beer of any kind in here, would you?" Doyle finished.

"No." Angel said.

"Come on, you must have something besides pig's blood!"

"Okay. You've told me the story of my life, but since I was there, I already knew. So why aren't I kicking you out?"

Doyle looks into the refrigerator that holds two bags of blood: "Because now I'm going to tell you what happens next. You see this vampire, he thinks he's helping. Fighting the demons. Staying away from the human's so as not to be tempted. Doing penance in his little - cell. But he's cut off. From every thing. From the people he's trying to help."

"I still save 'em. Who cares if I don't stop to chat." Angel shrugged.

"When was the last time you drank blood?" Doyle asked.

"When I was Angelus." Angel admitted.

"Left you with a bit of a craving, didn't it? Let me tell you something, pal, that craving is going to grow and one day soon one of those helpless victims that you don't really care about is going to look way too appetizing to turn down. And you'll figure hey! what's one against all I've saved? Might as well eat them. I'm still ahead by the numbers!"

"I wouldn't do that." Angel protested half-heartedly.

"Sure you would. Anyone would. You've got no girl, no blood, tons of guilt, and apparently, two mini hell raisers of your very own. Which is why the Powers are offering you a deal." Doyle told him.

"What?" Angel inquired.

"The klause in your curse is taken out, you're free to fall in love, not be as much of the depressed and suicidal type. But there's one condition." Doyle warned, seeing the elated expression on the vampire's face.

"What are they?" Angel asked impatiently.

"You can't go back to Buffy. You're mission is here, that's why they're offering this- keeps you happy and all, chance of finding someone else. And, you know, I'm parched from all this yakking, man. Let's go treat me to a Billy Dee. The midgets are asleep anyway."

Sure enough, when Angel looked down, he saw that the twins had, in fact, fallen asleep.

Angel grabbed his coat and followed the mysterious man, locking the door securely behind him.

"You know, they asked me to come back and read for a third time! I'm and actress. I don't put up with things like that!" Cordelia ranted to two men in business suits.

Angel turned around at the familiar voice.

"Cordelia?" he asked.

Cordelia spots him.

"Oh my God, Angel?" she asks.

"It's nice to see a familiar face." Angel said.

"I didn't know you were in L.A. Are you living here?" Cordelia inquired.

"Yeah, you?"

"Malibu. Small condo on the beach. It's not a private beach, but I'm young, I forbear."

"You're acting?" Angel asked her.

"Can you believe it? I mean I just started it to make some quick cash, and then boom, it was like my life! - So are you still grrr?" she asked, making a face and holding her hands up like claws.

"Yeah, there's not actually a cure for that." He said, barely managing to keep the amusement out of his voice.

"Right. But you're not evil, I mean your not here to bite people?"

"No, I'm here with a friend." Angel said.

"Oh, that's good. Finally making with the mingling."

"How are things with you?" Angel asked.

"Great. You?"

"Same, not getting a lot of sleep." He replied.

"Oh, that sucks. Bad neighbors?" Cordelia asked.

Angel mentally cursed. Of course, no one knew.

"Something like that." He said carefully.

"Oh, good. Well, it was nice seeing you, but I've got to get mingly. I really should be talking to people that _are_ somebody." The brunette walked off and Angel got back to his mission.

Angel and Doyle are talking in his apartment when they hear a scream. Both men jump up and rush upstairs. They find Cordelia there, cooing over the twins.

"Oh, you two are _so _cute!" she exclaimed. She picked the girl up and holds her, staring down into her face. The baby opens her eyes and blinks up at the unfamiliar face.

"And what's your name?" she asked softly.

"That's a good question. You never told me, either." Doyle put in.

Angel walks forward and picks the boy up.

"Well, this is Connor, I haven't thought of a name for the girl yet." He admitted.

"What about Kellina?" Cordelia suggested.

Doyle seemed to like it, or maybe he was just agreeing with the beauty that was Cordelia.

"Yeah, man, Kellina Diane." He told Angel.

Angel felt a smile breaking out over his face, for what felt like the first time in years.

"Kellina Diane," he repeated, "I like it."

I made it two months since he left Sunnydale just so Cordelia and Doyle would fit in. PLEASE REVIEW!


	2. Chapter One

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. At all. So if you did sue me, you'd get nothing.**

**a/n: ReganX **and **Imzadi**, I know you're right about leaving babies alone, and I know all of the things that can happen to a baby if you do, but Angel is a new- and fairly clueless- vampire. Hence, the whole I-don't-know-crap-about-babies-and-haven't-discovered-the-miracle-of-parenting-books attitude. Also, **ReganX **Kellina is one of my best friend's name, everyone calls her Kelli, though, and if you want to see how Cordy and Doyle adapt to the twins, read _Redemption_ the prequel to this fic. I'm posting Chapter One today. It might clarify a lot of the things in this fic. It starts with BtvS 'Becoming Part Two' and ends right before the beginning of this fic, which is why that one is going to be updated a lot faster then this one. **Freezyboncoolipants, **Doyle's around for this fic, although he _did_ die (check out _Redemption)._ And **Alen Pitt**, Buffy won't be coming to L.A. to take the babies, like I said in the summary, this fic takes place five years after she gave them up, setting it right after 'Chosen', so Buffy _has_ to go to L.A. and tell the Scoobies about her children. When she's there, well-you just have to keep reading. And thanks to **Night Essence**, **Totally Fearless**, **Angel-Cordy**, and for reviewing. I hope everyone likes this chapter. I'll shut up now.

* * *

"So, what are we going to do now?"

Buffy smiled softly. She could think of a lot of things they could do, now that everyone was out of danger. They had defeated the First Evil, there was a 'world of possibilities' open to the whole Scooby Gang now. No Hellmouth, Big Bad, or anything else remotely dangerous to them now. She opened her mouth to reply, but about twenty other people beat her to it.

"Let's go on a road trip!" Vi suggested loudly. Several other new Slayers agreed.

"That'd be cool." Rona said.

"No!" Rona spoke up.

"People need hospitals, not fast food and speeding tickets." Kennedy added.

Buffy agreed as she looked around the bus. Most of the White Hats were nursing several injuries and Wood looked like he was on the verge of collapsing from blood loss alone, never mind anything else.

"I agree," Giles said, putting an end to the bickering that had broken out while Buffy assessed the damage, "which is why we are going to Los Angeles. Angel and the rest of his team can help house us for a while, and we can get everyone the proper medical attention."

Buffy felt her grin slide right off of her face. Los Angeles? No, no, no, no, NO! Not there, not Angel. That was a very bad idea.

"No!" the word slipped out of her mouth before she could stop it. Everyone turned to look at her. "Um, I mean we can't because of the um, thingy. We have to get to um, the Mall of America. So we can, uh, properly grieve for the loss of the mall in Sunnydale!" she managed to come up with a- well _suitable_ wasn't the right word-excuse for her small outburst.

Everyone looked at her incredulously.

"I beg your pardon?" Giles asked, looking at her with his eyebrows raised.

"We have to go to the Mall of America." Buffy repeated, realizing just how stupid she had just sounded.

"The Mall of America?" Faith repeated harshly. "People are bleeding all over the bus and you want to go to the _Mall of America?_"

"I must agree with Faith, Buffy, I know you must be feeling rather proud at having defeated the First, but really, a little levity would be useful." Giles added.

Buffy avoided his eyes. She knew everyone was down from the losses at the Hellmouth. Personally, she was repressing, denial was always good. Which was something she had quite a bit of practice with- spending the past four and a half years trying to convince yourself your children were alright tended to make a girl a master at denial.

"I just don't want to go to L.A." Buffy said softly, not meeting his eyes.

"Why-" Giles started, but he was cut off.

"Well, too bad Buffy. Too many people have died already, we can't risk losing anyone else." Xander said harshly.

Buffy would've said something about his tone, but he had just lost Anya, it was understandable. Buffy, herself, might've been like that had it not been for the powerful forces of denial and distraction. Hell, she'd be sobbing on the ground right now. Why did Spike have to-. No, she wasn't going down that road. There wasn't a chance in hell that she was going to let herself think of the two lost Scoobies. Not now, it was too soon.

"We'll go to L.A., then." Willow said in a falsely cheerful voice. Clearly, she was having problems with the casualties, too.

Buffy said nothing, only stared out the window, loosing herself in the memories of the past.

"_Oh my god." she said softly._

_The blonde Slayer was sitting on her bathroom sink, looking at something in her hand. _

"_Oh my god." She repeated. "This isn't happening. It's not happening. There is no way this is happening. How could this happen? Okay, I know _how_ this could happen, but why? Why? Why? Why?" by now she was screaming at the ceiling, the scream of a helpless girl wanting some kind of miracle to save her._

_And that was when Buffy Summers, Vampire Slayer, defeater of the Judge, the Master, and in a way, Angelus, began to cry. She was helpless. There was nothing she could do to stop this. She was pregnant._

"_Buffy, do you want to go shopping?" Joyce Summers asked her daughter concernedly._

"_No, why?" Buffy asked as she headed out the door._

"_It's just that you've been dressing so weirdly lately, if this is a ploy to get me to take you to the mall, I'd be more then happy to." Joyce said, eyeing the large sweatshirt and sweatpants at least two sizes too big for the tiny blonde._

"_No, I'm fine. Seriously." She added as she caught her mother's disbelieving look._

_It wasn't that Joyce disapproved of Buffy's clothing, but the Slayer was usually so fashion-forward that the sudden change was a bit odd. Just last week Joyce had read a newspaper article that listed the symptoms of cutting. Depression and large clothing to hide the cuts/scars had been at the top of the list. Two signs that her daughter was currently exhibiting. But she knew Buffy would be late for school if she pursued the subject, and with her Principal Snyder just waiting for any reason- no matter how small- to expel Buffy, being late would not be a good thing. Buffy disappeared and Joyce mentally filed away her suspicions for a later date._

"_Angel, I need to talk to you." Buffy fidgeted as she stepped inside the huge mansion._

"_What is it?" Angel asked anxiously, worried by the look on her face._

"_Um, you might want to sit down." She warned. "It's a good thing you can't have heart attacks." She laughed nervously. How on Earth was she going to tell him this?_

_Angel didn't move from his place in front of her._

"_What is it?" he asked slowly._

"_Are you sure you want to know?" Buffy stalled._

"_Yes," Angel said impatiently, tired of her delaying, "Buffy, just tell me what's going on."_

_Buffy took a deep breath._

"_I'm pregnant." She said._

"_Buffy, where were you? I called a meeting to discuss the problem of Spike's return." Giles asked his Slayer concernedly._

"_Um, I was out. At the Bronze." Buffy lied badly._

"_I see." Giles took off his glasses and polished them. "Fortunately, we deemed Spike to be harmless in his current condition, nevertheless, you should make an effort to be at these meetings."_

"_I know Giles. From now on I'll be all over the presents. You can call me Santa's Helper, I'll be present so much." Buffy assured him quickly, thankful that he hadn't seen through the horrible lie._

"_Buffy, don't you even want to hold them?" Angel tried to get the teenager to budge from her unyielding resolve to try not to even look at the children._

"_No." Buffy said firmly. "I can't Angel." After arguing about this for the past seven months, her nerve finally broke. "I just can't. That makes them real, it makes them _our_ babies, and I can't deal with that, so don't ask me to. Just take them and go."_

_Angel took the two children in his arms wordlessly. She didn't even know if they were boys or girls. Buffy walked off, tears slipping down her cheeks. She didn't look back._

_Buffy watched as the paramedic tried to give Joyce CPR. For a second, she thought it had worked, but then the paramedic started recording the time of death. Her mother was dead. Dead and never coming back. _

_The Slayer didn't even hear what the paramedic said, nor process what she was doing. Her mind was focused on one word. _Sorry._ She was sorry that she had gotten expelled. She was sorry she had lied about being the Slayer. She was sorry that she had lied about Angel. She was sorry that she had run away. She was sorry for all the times she fought with Dawn. She was sorry that she had kept so many secrets. Especially the biggest secret of them all. She was sorry she had never told Joyce she was a grandmother. Now she never would._

After a few more thoughts like this, the physically and emotionally exhausted Slayer drifted off to sllep

"_Mommy?" a small golden haired little girl tugged on Buffy's leg._

"_Mommy?" another little girl was tugging on Buffy's other leg._

_Buffy looked down. Twins, her twins, were looking up at her with huge green eyes._

"_Where are you?" they both asked._

_The twins aged a few years, now they looked about ten years old._

"_Mom?" both of them tapped her on one of her shoulders._

"_Where are you?" they asked again._

_So it went on, until both girls were over eighty._

"_Mom, why didn't you come?" they both asked_.

It wasn't the first time Buffy had had this dream. Every Mother's Day, or holiday, or day around the time that she thought was their birthday, Buffy dreamed about her children. Sometimes they were boys, sometimes they were girls, and occasionally there was a boy and a girl. Sometimes they looked more like Angel then her, or they could resemble Buffy the most, she saw them looking nothing like either one of them, but more like one of their grandparents, or so she thought, since she had never met Angel's parents, for obvious reasons. Buffy had dreamed up hundreds of different versions of her children, maybe even thousands, despite her efforts to forget about them altogether. It was one of the many reasons that returning from Heaven had been so hard. In Heaven, she had known they were safe.

"Buffy? We're at the hospital." Willow tapped her shoulder gently.

Buffy jerked awake at the sudden contact so reminiscent of the ten year olds' actions from her dream. When she saw it was only Willow, she began to cry. Years of wondering and worrying, combined with the loss of Spike and so many other people, and all of the events of the past seven years came pouring out all at once as she sobbed brokenly. In just a few hours she was going to be facing Angel, her children, all of the lies she had told, and the last secret she had kept, at the same time. Willow looked lost as she awkwardly patted her friend on the back, and everyone else looked concerned.

"Rona, take everyone down to the emergency room. Xander, Dawn, stay here, Faith, you can go with Robin if you want." Giles said, taking charge as the new Slayers looked curious as to why one of their leaders was suddenly crying.

Faith looked at Robin, then she looked at Buffy.

"I'm staying." She announced.

Within a few minutes, Giles's instructions had been carried out, and what remained of the Scoobies gathered around Buffy and Willow.

"B, what's wrong?" Faith asked, mentally slapping herself in the head as she realized how stupid that question was. Obviously, there were quite a few things wrong, including the recent death of the second souled vampire Buffy had fallen in love with.

"Everything." Came Buffy's response, slightly muffled by Willow's shoulder as she sobbed into it.

"Buffy, can you explain?" Giles asked gently.

Buffy opened her mouth to say 'no' and continue crying, but she knew she couldn't keep the Scoobies in the dark forever. And she realized she didn't want to, either. After years of watching friends and family die, never knowing about the two babies that meant so much to her, she was tired of keeping the secret.

"Yes." She answered instead, pulling herself off of the Wicca and sitting up in the bus seat. "But you might not want to hear it."

"Buffy?" Dawn asked.

The Key hadn't said much after their initial euphoria at destroying the Hellmouth, the reality of Spike's sacrifice had sunken in as soon as that feeling evaporated, and since then she hadn't really said anything. However, concern for her sister's strange behavior overrode that. Instinctively, the Scoobies knew that Spike's death wasn't the cause of the sudden waterworks, although it was probably a factor.

Buffy sighed.

"I'm a mom." She said simply.

Four jaws dropped. Xander was the only one who processed the full meaning of what she'd said, and that was only because the whole situation felt surreal. Really, everything that had happened after Anya's death did. Buffy's seemingly air headed trip suggestion had been the only thing that'd momentarily snapped him out of his stupor, even if he didn't really notice that Buffy had said it, or the false tone in which she said it. Of course, everyone else had been too wrapped up in their own issues, too, to notice either.

"What do you mean you _are_ a mom?" he asked pointedly.

"Because I am. I'm not pregnant, but I was." Buffy said heavily. Ironically, she actually felt lighter inside, it felt good to know that the people she loved the most would know about the children she'd loved and kept safe in her heart for the past four and a half years.

"You _were_?" Giles asked her, recovering at last.

"Yep. They're Angel's." she replied, guessing what the next questions would be. "And yes, _they_. I had twins…" Buffy began to drift off as she thought back on the few short glimpses of the twins that she'd allowed herself.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Willow asked in a hurt voice.

"Willow, I was _seventeen_, it took me two months two even admit to _myself_ that I _might_ be pregnant. It took me another three weeks to take a pregnancy test, and another three months after that to tell Angel- who you all thought was dead, so it wasn't like I could just tell anyone." Buffy said.

"Why not?" Dawn challenged. "Even if you told everyone Willow's spell hadn't worked and you had killed Angel, why didn't you tell anyone? Why couldn't you at least tell mom? Why didn't you keep them? Why didn't you go visit them? Or talk to Angel?"

"I was scared. I was scared, and I was young, and I was stupid. So I lied. Why do you think Angel had to leave? I made him." Buffy replied. "I couldn't even _look_ at them, let alone find out if they were boys or girls. I can't even remember their birthday! And about mom? Don't you think I wish I had? She died without ever knowing about them- her own grandchildren. I've spent the last four years wishing I had told her and everyone else."

Once again, Buffy was sobbing. Faith moved onto the other side of the pained Slayer and in an unusual moment of compassion, gave the other woman a quick hug. Even Xander felt horribly for his best friend. Dawn, however, continued her "attack".

"Is that any excuse? Did you even think about your kids? You left them without a mom, Buffy. How is that fair?" she asked.

"Dawn." Giles said sharply.

"What? You don't agree with me?" Dawn retorted.

"Yo, chill mini-B, she's hurting right now." Faith told her.

"So?" Dawn asked.

"Faith, she has a right to ask. I've asked myself the same thing anyway. And Dawn, it's not fair, the same way Mom leaving us wasn't fair. It just happened anyway." Buffy said quietly.

That struck the core of the matter in one simple sentence. Dawn was reflecting the loss of her own mother with the twins' loss of theirs, a theory proven by the way Dawn deflated as suddenly as she had begun accusing Buffy. Dawn crumpled up and crawled into Buffy's lap as if she was still a little girl. Soon, both Summers women were crying, and not much later, Willow and the unshakeable Faith had joined in.

"We really need to start hanging out with more guys." Xander told Giles seriously.

"Yes, we really do, especially with all of these new Slayers around. Perhaps Angel has some men working with him." Giles replied just as seriously.

"Yeah, even Dead Boy would've gone crazy again if he had to spend seven years with nothing but women." Xander agreed.

"Shut up." All four girls present said.

The two men did as they were told, but not without exchanging knowing looks. Unconsciously, Xander was adopting the Denial Philosophy, a.k.a. Sunnydale's Second Most Popular Mental Problem. It was right up there with Sunnydale's Number One Mental Problem, a.k.a. Suicidal Compulsions To: A. end or B. save the world. Unfortunately, the problems of those who once resided on the Hellmouth tended to blow up to extraordinary proportions. But the distraction of those same mental issues helped keep everyone from thinking about said ex-Hellmouth. Besides, people's problems were always interesting, and looking back on them, certain insane person tended to laugh their asses off thinking of them. Three guesses who.


End file.
